If Republicans and those who tend to vote for them are smart, they will do what they can to deprive the label "moderate" of its force.

In the contemporary popular imagination, the political Moderate is a noble figure, as dispassionate in his analysis of all perspectives as he is sympathetic to them, the paragon of moral virtue. While catalogues of the virtues have varied from one cultural context to another, a dominant Western ethical tradition whose origins are traceable to ancient Greece, the home of Western philosophy, has always affirmed as the cardinal virtues the excellences of Temperance, Justice, Courage, and Wisdom. 

Though this point isn't explicit, when used as a noun in our political discourse, the term "moderate" is intended to suggest one who possesses these virtues. Temperance is self-control, and who is self-controlled if not the Moderate?  The person of self-control is the person whose soul is governed steadily by its crowning jewel, Reason, and so with self-control comes Wisdom. Wisdom, in turn, enables the virtuous person — the Moderate — to do Justice to all, irrespective of their partisan associations, but this requires Courage, for the pressure to accommodate the preferences of others, especially those with whom one has typically allied oneself, can be great indeed.    

But of course there is a Liberal virtue as well that the conventional wisdom ascribes to the Moderate: tolerance. The Moderate, as his very name abundantly clarifies, is nothing if not tolerant of others' views.

The Moderate has other aliases that further confirm the strength of his character.  He is also known as a "centrist" and an "independent." As the name suggests, the Centrist is one who avoids extremes, and as Aristotle said over 2,300 years ago, the virtuous person is he who strikes "the mean" between extremes.  And the Independent, of course, is a genuinely "autonomous" agent, a lone character who has succeeded in realizing that rarest of achievements: objectivity of thought.

While the average American may not be, and probably is not, consciously aware of all of these features of the Moderate, this, I believe, is something like the conception of the Moderate that he or she at least vaguely entertains. At any rate, this is certainly the conception that the terms "moderate," "centrist," and "Independent," are intended to inspire.

But this image of the Moderate is a romantic, and invidious, myth, fueled principally by the political ambitions of the Left.

Notice that rarely, if ever, is a Democrat described as a moderate. There have been and continue to be Democrats described as "conservative," "Reagan," or "blue dog;" but the term "moderate" is overwhelmingly ascribed to Republicans.

Here in, I suspect, is the key as to why the conventional wisdom has touted the Moderate as a character type to which to aspire.

The conventional wisdom, let us not forget, among both Republicans and Democrats, is that the United States is a "center-right" country.  It is this belief that explains why during presidential election cycles, candidates from both national parties strive to convince the American voter of their aversion to "liberalism."  Republicans insist that they are rock-ribbed "conservatives" while their opponents charge them with invoking "conservatism" for opportunistic purposes only.

Our most recent presidential contest is a case in point.  John McCain, who has for long been regarded by both friend and foe alike as a "moderate" and, hence, a "maverick" — names, tellingly, by which the Arizona Senator never appeared in the least troubled to go by — now suddenly proclaimed from the rooftops his "conservative" bona fides. In response, Democrats accused McCain of essentially lying in order to garner votes; but that they would seek to undermine their opponent by denying that he is a genuine "conservative" betrays the fact that they recognize that being perceived as "conservative" is an asset in an American presidential election. 

In contrast, Democrats never tire of trying to persuade Americans that it is in truth they who are the true "conservatives," even if, for fear of alienating their left-wing base, they refrain from explicitly identifying themselves as such. Democrats, we all know, promote theirs as the party of national security, economic prosperity, and family values, and Democrat politicians, especially those on the national level, know that they must style themselves men and women of religious faith if they are to stand a fraction of a chance of being elected.

So, when the establishment ("mainstream") media extols the virtues of the Moderate, it is (at least) primarily in order to manipulate conservatives, both voters and politicians, into resisting their impulses, to eschewing "extremism."  In other words, the Moderate is elevated to the extent that he is in order to drive the conservative-disposed to basically relinquish, or at least adulterate, his or her political commitments. Yet this in turn demands that the conservative-inclined embrace — you guessed it — the Democrat's positions on those issues to which the Left attaches great importance. 

The much revered "moderate," then, is nothing else than a Republican (or Republican sympathizer) who frequently allies him or herself with left-leaning Democrats: the Moderate isn't a moderate at all, but more of a "liberal."

This thesis becomes increasingly difficult to refute once it is considered that those prominent Democrats who have refused to accommodate their party's characteristic partisan prejudices are never hailed as "moderates" or "mavericks."  Joe Lieberman, for instance, in spite of having consistently and passionately opposed his party's stance on the Iraq War, and in spite of having endorsed the Republican presidential candidate in 2008, was praised by no one but Republicans, and his own party treated him with scorn. Similarly, I don't recall anyone revering lifelong Democrat Zell Miller as a "moderate" or "maverick" when he spoke at the GOP's 2004 national convention in support of George W. Bush's reelection.

If Republicans and those who tend to vote for them are smart, they will do what they can to deprive the label "moderate" of its force, a goal toward which the crucial first step is to call out so-called "moderate" Republicans for what they are: "liberals" and/or leftists.